35 yrs on, 11 cops convicted for Raj ex-royal’s murder
RAJA MAN SINGH WAS SHOT DEAD ALONG WITH HIS TWO SUPPORTERS IN POLICE FIRING IN FEBRUARY 1985
nBHARATPUR: A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mathura pronounced 11 policemen, including a former Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP), guilty on Tuesday in the controversial 1985 murder of Raja Man Singh who was shot dead by the police a day after he crashed his jeep wilfully in a fit of anger into a helicopter being used by the then chief minister .
The quantum of punishment will be announced on Wednesday.
The CBI named 18 policemen in its charge sheet ; four of them died during the trial and three others were acquitted.
The convicted police officials include Kan Singh Bhati who was DSP of Deeg in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur.
The verdict came 35 years after Singh was killed in police firing.
Raja Man Singh was the younger brother of the last ruler of Bharatpur, Maharaja Sawai Vrijendra Singh, and son of Maharaja Kishan Singh.
Born on December 5, 1921, he studied engineering in England and was a seven-time Independent MLA from Deeg between 1952 and 1984.
Raja Man Singh’s daughter Krishnendra Kaur Deepa was the tourism minister in the last BJP government in Rajasthan. The CBI court hearing was shifted to Mathura from Rajasthan on a plea in the Supreme Court by her in 1990.
Man Singh was shot dead along with his two supporters in police firing in February 1985 after an incident of violence in then chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur’s helicopter was damaged. Mathur was campaigning for Congress candidate from Deeg, Brijendra Singh, who was contesting against Man Singh.
Ahead of a meeting he was to address, Congress workers removed flags and banners of Raja Man Singh from the area. An enraged Man Singh reached the meeting venue with his supporters. He drove his jeep into the chief minister’s helicopter.
Curfew was imposed soon after. The following day, February 21, Singh, according to Deepa, was on his way to surrender to the police who had registered a complaint against him when he was shot dead by Kan Singh Bhati and other policemen who stopped his jeep.
Apart from Singh, his supporters, Thakur Sumer Singh and Thakur Hari Singh, were also killed in the police firing.
The 11 police personnel convicted are Kaan Singh Bhati, Virendra Singh, Sukhram, Jagram, Jag Mohan, Sher Singh, Padmaram, Hari Singh, Chhitar Singh, Bhawar Singh and Ravi Shekhar.
Krishnendra Kaur Deepa said her husband Vijay Singh registered a complaint against the policemen charging them with murder. “We are happy there has been justice after 35 years,” she said.